Kukla's Korner Hockey

This might have gotten lost in the endless blather about the NHL player lockout, but there’s a chance the participation of NHL players at the 2014 Olympic men’s hockey tournament also could be a casualty of the current idiocy.

Whether the boys go to Sochi, Russia — thankfully the women have no such squabbles to settle — was supposed to be a negotiated portion of the agreement that eludes both sides.

The players want to go and the Russians among those in thrall to Don Fehr and the union these days will go completely bananas if NHL participation is a casualty of the disharmony. So it should be case closed, one would think.

Yet how could the owners, allegedly still 100 per cent behind their snarling commissioner, be thinking of inserting another three-week shutdown into their business 14 months from now? Think about it. Are they really going to settle up this time with a 48-game season, or something similar, and then agree to shoehorning in another full slate next season around another three-week stretch of darkened arenas?